NOVEMBER 15TH
NOVEMBER 15TH HOLD THE DATE
What you up to on Friday, November 15th?
Well, you will be hanging with me at the ‘Dope Ever Since’ event in NYC.
I am super duper excited to announce my newest latest pop-up exhibition. It is taking place at a SECRET Chintatown location on November 15th between 7 p.m. 12a.m. One of the main agendas of Mz.Icar is to create and participate in engaging ‘real life’ experiences. Thanks to the movers and shakers at Lost Art BK, we have been able to team up with some musicians and creatives to do just that.
This night promises to be a fun exhibition, with live music performances. Space is extremely limited if you plan on coming please RSVP there is a tight capacity…you have been warned. The event is free with RSVP and if space permits, there may be a fee at the door.
In other news of growth and expansion, I have started to figure out my relationship with commerce and I and will have art for sale at this exhibition. and wait there’s more, I will launch the long-awaited Mz. Icar webstore on Nov. 15th. If you have any specific pieces in mind please get at me to make arrangements for purchase. Hope to see you soon.
PRESS RELEASE:
For one special night in NYC, LABK brings you “Dope Ever Since,” the live music/art installation event for all tastemakers & connoisseurs of everything dope, fly & fresh.
D.E.S brings together a tribe of artists, aligned on the same vibration of creating original artistic works for the mass appeal. In collaboration with the uber talented visual artist, Mz. Icar (@mz.icar), the space will be set for embracing the night & inhaling the moment. It’s going to be a jam packed night with DJ Tough Dumplin behind the wheels steering the ship. D.E.S will feature live music performances from two of illest hip hop acts out of Brooklyn right now: Bedstuy’s favorite brothers – DJ Jahmedicine & O-Boogie will set the tone for the night. And the following set will elevate the moment featuring the emcee: Rashid Amir, guest starring legendary producer- Ski Beatz as the conductor.
SPARK
SPARK...THEN SHOOT
My latest endeavor has been on love, joy, beauty, elation and inner peace. Its thrown a wrench in my process of using old imagery to collage and reconstruct ideologies. That being said, this new theme has forced me to create new works from the ground up. I realize that in this day and time there just aren’t many fabulous images of black people being joyous and peaceful. Now my mission is to create that.
As a collective, We take image making very seriously. Our talents range the professional art fields of photography videography, advertising, marketing, street and fine art.
One of the things that continue to emerge is the changing industry, how creators such as producers and art directors are either getting laid off or lost in the shuffle. Companies are looking to do things more efficiently to save money. We know that cutting the organizers doesn’t necessarily save money. We see how shoots run over time, how the industry wants more complicated content, and the day is only so long. Basically, the shoots are too cumbersome for the lack of direction.
We sat down, we bitched about how shoots used to be more fun, smoother and just had a better direction. Although it seems we can technologically do more, and the capabilities are endless we’re getting really confuzzled about how to go about it. We feel as though things are in flux to meet the demands of social media, the demand for more. It’s stressing us out. Luckily, we’re not the types to sit, complain, fart and scratch our butts all day. We decided to plan a shoot and basically remind ourselves what we’re working with. How super we are. That we have the answers to trifle with a demanding industry that wants more.
We had a creative direction in mind and got our main Mz. behind the camera. The goal was to optimize logistics for the shoot to be seamless, timely and fun. And we did it! Their is minimal retouching because Ediomi and Kat are fly to begin with.
Hope you enjoy. We did this completely in house all in a day, cuz we had to flex on them.
SOCA UNIVERSE
SOCA UNIVERSE SPECIAL PROJECT
Throughout my creative career there’s always been a synergy between the visual work that I make and music. I’ve noticed that I consider my process similar to a hip hop producer or composer in general. Sourcing or creating imagery to be used for collage is in the vein of sampling an break beat. The thing they have in common is that they are a deliberate breaking down in order to reconstruct. Visual reconstruction is my jam. Every story has multiple perspectives and I feel like the medium of collage and deconstructing and reconstructing is the most immediate recognition that the author is giving you a perspective, it is in itself a medium that recognizes that there are various views, layers and ways to tell a story. I’m always dealing with pieces of imagery and putting them together. That seems to be the one common thread and everything that I do.
The energy of process seems to attract musicians. I’ve had the opportunity of my career to work with amazing musicians in all walks of life. This latest projects is really close to my heart. Machel Montano is pretty much the king of current-day soca and creative cover art for Soca Universe’s Vol 1 compilation is huge. Soca music and Calypso was an integral part of my upbringing. My mom’s side is from Belize, Central America and soca is King. Growing up in southern California it was very much so marginal music, but the sounds blaring from my grandmother’s house and every family gathering told a completely different story. I often crack jokes and call soca the techno or House of Caribbean music as it requires some serious stamina.
Oftentimes the iconography of our culture is created by an external entity. This project gave me the opportunity to be in the front of center of creating and example or option or celebration and how we see ourselves. I shot the image used at Trinidad’s carnival a few years back and when Machel’s camp approached me to do this project I was elated to do something that felt so close to home and pull some of the archival footage from that journey.
MS. LAURYN HILL SPECIAL PROJECT
MS. LAURYN HILL
I spent a good chunk of early this year and last year working on visuals for Miss Lauryn Hill’s 20th anniversary Miseducation World Tour. It was a life-changing experience to be able to work with such an iconic creative and one that has inspired me so much. It is a real honor and I am so grateful for the opportunity. Some of the images and things are still in the work so we can’t share it all but here’s a sneak peek of some of the things that we have been working on including graphics and designs for afrochella and merch for various pop up throughout the tour we were also very honored to be able to showcase our work in her curated digital exhibition across the world.
"farewell to meat" CARIBANA 2019
"FAREWELL TO MEAT" (UPDATED)
Hiya peeps!!
Catch me this Sunday working on a live large canvas piece in celebration of Toronto’s Caribana 2019.
Did you know that the Latin derived name of the holiday ‘carnaval’ means “farewell to meat” I will be exploring this theme in terms of the objectification of black bodies and farewell to that notion.
Catch me this Sunday, Aug 4th, 2019 at
Harbourfront Centre
235 Queens Quay West
Toronto, ON M5J 2G8
Many thanks to @harbourfrontcentre
And @supafrik fo inviting me out.
See ya soon t-dot peeps
And @toughdumplin will def be around.
Update. Here’s the final piece
REMIXED!
REMIXED
I love museums but I really have to be in the mood to go. It’s so hard to go into these institutions that basically have erased your whole existence, or minimize it ie: minimal inclusion for tokenism. That’s why I tend to go on the pay what you wish for the free days. I figure they have enough rich people upholding the racist ideas of the institution. I’ll just mosey on in and go for free because I feel like my people have paid enough, be it inspiration or sheer labor or continuing to be ‘the help’.
It’s interesting, as I walk through this whole exhibition all I see is the designer’s access, access to money, access to materials, access to audience, and access to media. I wish I didn’t recognize one third to half of the designers, but access seems to buy you a piece of the audience whether they like it or not. This access is so cloudy that it’s hard to tell if this work is amazing, or if it just had so much access that it is revered. The recognition of the designers, itself just gives the whole exhibition more gravity than I’d like to.
I’ll always be inspired by color texture pattern so it goes without saying that this exhibition is inspiring but I can’t help but feel that something is missing…oh yeah, designers of color.
Ironically the exhibitions is guarded by docile looking black people dressed up like butlers.
Side note funny story. I once went out one night in Philadelphia wearing these exact shoes only to be turned away by the doorman saying that women had to wear heels and I was out of dress code. Ironic to see these exact same shoes in an exhibition in the Philadelphia Museum of art. I guess it all depends on who’s wearing them.
The gatekeepers of history and culture seem to have those little blinders on like a horses that you see carrying people around in New York on little wagons. With blinders, one has such a limited view and the casualties of the limitations include all the people that helped inspire influence and push these fashions and art. Sometimes it feels as if they are purposely placing invisibility to all these other people that exist.
Don’t worry I won’t leave you hanging. Here’s a few notable fashion related pieces that highlight the participation and role of Black culture in fashion. The Nod did an amazing episode on the Battle of Versaille, called ‘Chitlins at Bergdorfs.’ In 2015 Sacha Jenkins directed a pretty cool doc called ‘Fresh Dressed’ that focuses on urban fashion and its role in main stream. The Mz. Icar team and I decided to remix this exhibition because we will pull up a seat at any table we want to.
Collage/ Illustration by Mz .Icar
photos courtesy of @jendayiasha, c.kennebrew and Junkprints archive// Select shoot Production by: @ediomi @efikokostudios // makeup: @_brittanyrogers // hair: @tierras_hair_artistry // accessories: @statement92
models: @mariosimonee, @annett_ka26, @sheshe_themodel
ARMOUR
ARMOUR
We stayed cultured, but we also stay maaaad suspect (insert raised eyebrow). Here are some notes from a recent trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The concept of armour is such a ‘white man’ ideology. Obviously all of these armoured gear were made in Europe. The whole idea of being so heavy and covered with limited agility limited vision and limited dexterity in order to combat an enemy seems utterly stupid. All your opponent needs to do is set you on fire and you’ll immediately burn up/melt in your armour, or they could just run around you in circles because there’s no way that you could possibly defeat anybody running around you in circles. It almost seems as if it’s the whole idea is to be so far away from the problem vs facing it honestly truthfully and with humility.
Ya’ll know how we love solutions and alternative methods so here is a list of alternatives to armour.
- Play dead, when your enemy arrives everyone just drop to the floor like the fiercest death drop ever.
- Chant.
- smile and extent a hand…genuinely.
- if your enemy arrived in armour, just gong them in the head, or do that harlem shake thing that they do in basketball that breaks ankles.
*Since we are talking about European ‘armour’ figured we use that extra ‘u’ in the spelling. The Queen’s English seems to think o’s are lonely. Guess it’s our version of putting some respect on it.
DEAR MAMA
Studio thots:
We have been sitting on this one for a minute! I am so excited to announce our recent work with Essence magazine. One of our Mz’, had the opportunity to paint a three-story mural for the background set celebrating Tonya Louis Lee and Satchel Lee for the may issue. This is currently on the shelves right now it is so fun when you’re commercial and you’re fine art have a chance to mix and match and make babies together.
Roll call, cuz it takes a village to create this type of magic…and the Essence fam has been killing it when it comes to bringing together dope ass black talented women.
Fashion Director @mariellebobo 👗 interview by @missjulee 📝 Shoutout to the creative team: Photographer @ericagenece 📸 Art Director @mochamommy_nyc 🎬 Photo Editor @traceysees 🎞 CCCO @moanaluu 🔌 Set Designer @mz.icar🔮 Makeup Artist @jessicasmalls 💄 Hairstylist @monaeartistry 👸🏽 Manicurist @ginaedwards_ 💅🏾 Video Producer @seanandnotheard
This was painted on a continuous 3 story long 12ft canvas. This was done so that we could rotate the canvas on set resulting in various background settings and layered volume….it is very heavy!
Since we are in a sharing (aka bragging mood) and This essence issue has given us our whole lives and then some in the form of super fun work, great teams and visual candy, let me cleanse your timeline palette with dots. For this one our Mz’ made a series of custom dot backgrounds and a gazillion large dots. A period could never really be enough, a dot is much better suited.
Roll call
Photographer: @itayshaphoto
Wardrobe: @mariellebobo
MUA: @jaleesajaikaran
Haír: @naeemahlafond
Manicurist: @pipbuzzz
Set Design : @mz.icar
Model : @alyseeeuh
MAYDAY, MAYDAY, WHERE ARE THE LADY CODERS?
The project was completely laid out. All the pngs were size then ready for uploading. Sitemap was created. Funds ready to be distributed. All support images and information were ready for the right coder...the right bad ass back slash. bracket genius.
It was really important to us to hire a woman coder preferably a woman of color. This ended up being quite a challenge. We reached out to local coding organizations in which we didn't receive any replies. We also sent out feelers through our community and received a few responses. Most people were not confident about taking on the job. The only people who were confident about taking on the job were white male coders. They were highly professional a pleasure to talk to and I got the sense that the project would have been done smoothly and timely.
Being that we are all about collaboration, empowerment, balance and sustainability we felt that it was important that this job circulated money to women. This proved to be quite the challenge. We finally thought we found our star, but she thought sending screenshots of progress equated to creating a functioning site...le sigh.
The last few months resulted in us becoming so frustrated that we just created our own site in house and kept our funds to ourselves. Now on the surface this may seem like a total win. It's not tho, for the following reasons: 1. it took our time away from making other things 2. It also removed money from the pockets of other women that it could sustain. Being that we are trying to create strong roots through the community, share and collaborate, in many ways this was a fail. We hope to do better in our future projects.
We see ourselves on both sides of this project, the customer and the commissioned and hope that we can be better at both. Perhaps we are writing this as a call or a beacon to rethink the way that we are approaching things and as a reminder not to be so overcome with insecurities about our abilities to serve one another by deliver fantastic work and getting paid for it.
Welcome to the Mz. Icar website. This is just the framework but the beams are in place and we look forward to filling up the space.
LISTS
List are the greatest way to organize things.
List create checkpoints for getting things done.
Sometimes I put very simple things on the list like take a deep breath. Just so that I can check it off.
The feeling of accomplishment is amazing. you should try it. Just put read this post on your list and check it off when complete.
Other times I put things that remain on this for a very long time. Every task isn’t a quickly.
I like looking back at list they remind me of what I saw how I spent my time.
And then make a list about the love of lists.